Occupy Wall Street objectives resemble 18th-century Tea Party

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Wednesday, October 5, 2011

To the Editor:

As we all know The Hour to be independently minded, fair and balanced in presenting all points ofview, we know your readers will be interested in thistake on the top reasons why the "Occupy Wall StreetProtests Embody Values of the Real Boston Tea Party"as pointed out by Washington D.C. writer Lee Fang.

Mr. Fang points out that today's Tea Party has been linked to policies favoring powerful corporations and the wealthy. He explains why this is a cor-ruption of the real forces driving 18th-century Colo- nial Americans to express their anger that the Brit-ish government was using taxes on tea imported to the American colonies to enrich the huge conglomerate that was the East India Trading Company.As we all know, the American colonials did it under the dubious but effective way of disguising themselves as Indians and dumping the equivalent of millions of dollars worth of the company's tea into Boston Harbor.

Fang equates what he terms "a civil disobedience action against a private corporation in 1773" with the Occupy Wall Street protests targeting bankslike Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, GE and other corporations with sit-ins and peaceful rallies. The original Tea Party feared that corporate greed would destroy America, and pamphlets expressing those fears were widely disseminated among colonials.

Most pointedly, the original Tea Party believed that government was necessary to protect against corporate excesses. Fang goes on, "Samuel Adams believed that oppression could occur when governments are too weak." Tea Party patriots believed that "rough economic equality was necessary to maintaining liberty." The Occupy Wall Street protesters demand a country that invests in education, infrastructure and jobs. Additionally, the original Tea Party wanted a stronger democracy and was much more than simply a revolt against taxation.

Fang concludes that lobbyists and Republican groups have driven today's Tea Party to push for giveaways to oil companies and big business, objectives totally opposite to those intended by the real 18th century Tea Party. On the other hand, he finds the Occupy Wall Street objectives almost identical to those of the original 18th century Tea Party of American patriots. Apparently, as reported in the past several days by The Hour, so does the U.S. Marine Corps, some of whose members have come to protect the protesters in New York against police crowd busters.

Rod Lopez-Fabrega

Norwalk

Sportmanship and school spirit

To the Editor:

As a college student, there is nothing like coming back home and returning to your high school to see old friends and see a sporting event.

Our local area high school students have displayed a tremendous amount of pride for their respective schools, and it is great to see. At my college, there is nothing better than singing the school fight song and rooting for the home team. Even though we might lose a game or two, we remain civil. We show the team a sense of sportsmanship and congratulate them on a job well done.

The other day I saw talk on Facebook regarding amatter on another town's team. Words were said and tempers flared, and things were mentioned that went well beyond school spirit. We must remember that school pride is always good but not to take it too far. What was said on the social networking site was not acceptable. Both parties were to blame, but it must not happen again. We should be glad that we can participate in sporting events and support our schools.

We need to act like adults and respect one another. Have pride in your school, but don't put down others. Sportsmanship and school spirit should go hand and hand.

Jason S. Tyler

Norwalk

Yard debris pickup appreciated

To the Editor:

I would like to acknowledge and thank Mayor Moccia and the city administration for scheduling a cleanup of the yard debris left behind by Hurricane Irene. This pick-up of leaves and branches on Sept. 24 was a tremendous help to homeowners who were faced with either a long wait until the next scheduled leaf pickup during the week of Oct. 17 or the option of personally taking their many bags of leaves and branches to the South Smith Street drop-off site.

I know that I speak for myself and many other residents of Norwalk who contacted City Hall or wrote letters to The Hour, to say "thank you" for responding to our calls.